Essay on Fashion Industry Comeback Cycles
How many times have you looked around what people were wearing, and asked yourself, isn't that what they used to wear in the '70s and 60s? Isn't it sort of old school? And the answer is; yes!! No clothes or style has an expiration date unless we decide it ourselves. The fashion cycle is when old fashion trends come back on the trend cycle of a completely different era, for instance, the chunky shoes or the scrunchies that have made a comeback now.
The forgotten fashion becomes the IN fashion.
Ugly is the new pretty.
Tye-dye becomes more popular because of COVID-19.
The fashion industry has become an essential part of every person's life, as it's the one that defines what people will like and be wearing at the end of the day. For example; cowboy jeans were at their peak in the 70s. Now in 2021, they are back.
Fashion trends are a form of self-expression and acceptance into a particular period. Like all trends, they have a beginning and an end, but the end doesn´t mean that it is gone forever.
As we all already know, all fashion trends have to come to an end at some point, but it doesn't mean they can't come back, and even if they have become ¨outdated¨ or ¨out of style¨ for some people it doesn't, I mean, we see individuals using ripped jeans or even baby tanks and tees. What people don't seem to realize is that the trends can change in a split of a second, one-minute bucket hat can be seen as unfashionable or old, but as soon as celebrities or influential people start to wear them either on TV or on the streets, and they change from one second to another, they come back and become the IN items again. If Rihanna started using bow collars, there is a big possibility that the next morning you would see posts of people using them or going to the store to get the now popular bow collars, because people know that what celebrities wear is powerful and trendy, as it comes from professional stylists.
That is how much of an impact trends have on the fashion industry; they are the ones that come up with the ideas of what people are gonna wear for every season, and one strategy that they use to make it come true is the influential people. People want to be a little like their idols or favorite celebrities, at the end of the day.
One of the trendiest items now is called ¨ugly¨, but it's exactly what our society is using now, ¨Ugly is the new pretty¨, and we are loving it. This kind of style came back from 2017; while doing a market study, people now care more about comfort than fashion itself, so why not mix it? We are living in a difficult time at the moment, because of COVID-19, many people are stuck in their houses, but the trends won't stop because of the pandemic, it's quite the opposite, trends develop and assimilate to each time or problem. Right now there is comfort over high fashion.
Society´s fashion changed into comfortable clothes such as; sweat pants, pajamas, or oversize. People don´t want to show their bodies to the world to criticize when they go out, so if you use loose clothing they don´t have a perspective, it is just like what Billie Eilish uses, it´s hard to attack people when they can´t see the big picture, and it´s not that they are ugly clothes, just that they intend to hide peoples figure and focus on the comfort, not the fitting of each body. Also, for some reason, ugly clothes tend to be more comfortable, and let gives people more confidence. Big brands saw this change and made the impact even greater by getting involved and making their ¨Ugly collections¨, which raised the attention to this trend. The Balenciaga chunky shoes, although they may seem like sportswear, are used as a fashion statement. ¨Not everyone has to like the new trends, but ugliness in fashion makes them relevant¨ (Firzli. J).
We are now living in a pandemic, and so we have had to stay locked up in our homes, trying our very best to stay occupied, so for that, we brought back an old activity that can be homemade, cool, and entertaining all at once, and that is Tye-dye. It is used as a way for people to express themselves through the different designs, the paint makes, and color.
The other reason for their popularity comes from the help of apps, such as Pinterest, Instagram, and many others, where people show pictures or videos of their creations and what they are up to throughout the pandemic times. Another reason for its popularity is that they are cool and cheap to make; it has become some sort of therapeutic activity for some people because the color have proven to make people happy. They were making a comeback before the pandemic, but this world issue made it even more attractive to the public and became used even more.
Fashion doesn't have an expiration date, yes, tendencies change every second, but as we all noticed, the fashion industry always comes back with new ideas inspired by the old trends; that’s why it´s called ¨The fashion cycle¨. Nowadays, we have more resources for the crowds to get to know the tendencies, one of them with the help of the celebrities; but as trends end and become ¨forgotten¨, they can make a comeback in a split of a second.
The pandemic changed many things and thoughts in people, but the biggest one was their clothing options, now they prefer comfort over fashion, because why would they want to be uncomfortable just to get into the status quo we have created, when we are dealing with this pandemic, the clothes they are using is, sweatpants, oversize, and chunky shoes, all not very pretty, but who is gonna judge when we are all living in these horrible circumstances. We as a society are the ones who decide what is trendy or not. Just like Tye-dye was trendy in the 70s, but because of the pandemic, people started to do it again as a home activity that would keep them entertained for hours and at the same time, come out making a cool new design for their clothes.
